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Sunday, July 16th, 2023

The Biden Administration Bets Big on ‘Climate Smart’ Agriculture

Author:     GABRIEL POPKIN
Source:     Yale 360
Publication Date:     JULY 13, 2023
 Link: The Biden Administration Bets Big on ‘Climate Smart’ Agriculture
Stephan:  

This report is kind of a mixed bag, but it shows the Biden administration is at least trying to do something about America’s failing agricultural system. Not enough, as the article describes, but at least something, while the Red state Republicans are lost in the wilderness of their culture war.

The average age of farmers in this country is 57.5 with 34% over 65. They are literally aging out, and their children increasingly aren’t interested in that life. The farms are being bought up by large corporations, and foreigners, which most Americans are completely unaware of. These include China, with 194,179 acres, Venezuela with 28,058 acres, and Saudi Arabia with 18,586 acres. Then there is the growing water problem, particularly the seven states dependent on the Colorado River, and those also along the Mississippi River. And the heat, of course. I think in the coming decades food for the first time is going to become a serious problem in this country.

A farmer near Bowling Green, Ohio plants soybeans using a no-till drill. Untilled soil stores more carbon. 
Credit: J.D. Pooley / AP

A new kind of food may soon be arriving on grocery store shelves: climate smart. Under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a nascent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program, this amalgam of farming methods aims to keep the American agricultural juggernaut steaming ahead while slashing the sector’s immense greenhouse gas footprint.

This spring, the Biden administration began allocating $3.1 billion to hundreds of agriculture organizations, corporations, universities, and nonprofits for climate-smart projects. These entities will pass most of the money on to tens of thousands of farmers, ranchers, and forest owners, including growers who manage thousands of acres and underserved and disadvantaged farmers who often have much smaller operations. The first agreements have now been signed; the money is starting to flow.

The USDA estimates that the 141 funded projects will, collectively over the project’s five-year lifetime, eliminate or sequester the equivalent of 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, on par with removing more than […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Sunday, July 16, 2023 at 4:37 am

    These are the reasons that I have organic gardens all over my property, and have been building them up with compost for over 20 years now. I can grow 50% of my own food.